After Class Lesson Vol. #1

What They SayRyuji Shibui, known also as The Squid, is a very strange man. He has never dated anyone and is, in fact, still a virgin. But his lifestyle is about to change thanks to the mischeif of Ayumi Amakawa, a cheerleader.

After getting a "taste" of pleasure that can only be experienced through sex, his ambition now grows with excitement at the idea of finding another girl to have sex with. How far will The Squid go to fulfill his desires?

The Review!When a virgin teacher gets his first taste of a young woman, not only does he desire more but so does she.

Audio: For our primary viewing session, we listened to this show in its original language of Japanese. It's the only language track included here as once again there's no dub for a new adult release. The track is a fairly standard stereo mix with a bit of directionality across the two channels that sounds decent if not terribly immersive. Dialogue is mostly center channel based but it comes across clean and clear and we had no problems with dropouts or distortions during regular playback.

Video: Originally released in 2004, the transfer for this OVA is presented in its original full frame aspect ratio. Similar to several of the better produced series out there, the source material here looks good with lots of bright vivid colors and some decent animation that doesn't show too many shortcuts. The colors generally look good and solid though there are some areas where you can see the color gradient but it is a fairly small issue all told and most likely not noticeable on most setups. A few of the mid range shots have a bit of aliasing going on around some of the characters, but this tends to stem more from the reds used as the background going up against the maroon in the characters school uniforms. Generally, this is a good looking transfer with only a few very small areas that will stand out for some.

Packaging: The front cover has a fairly standard image but a nicely illustrated one of one of the girls being accosted from behind by the teacher as her clothes start to fall away from her. She's got that blushing stop/don't stop look to her and the bland but almost creepy green shaded background accents the colors of her uniform nicely. The back cover provides a couple of rows worth of small shots from the show and has a taped on handwritten note that provides the summary for what the series is about in a rather cute way. The remainder of the cover is given over to the production info and the technical grid along the bottom that covers the details. The reverse side shows the front cover as it originally appeared where the skirt is hiked up more and you can see him grasping at her underwear while the back side doesn't bother with the pictures but rather goes with the premise and a really nice set of illustrations of the two women in mild bondage.

Menu: The menus are well done here as it uses some of the character artwork from the reverse side back cover of Ayumi in bonds with a red cloud morphing behind her as some of the instrumental music plays along. The colors and clarity of the image are great here and the layout is straightforward and simple to use with the navigation strip along the bottom. Worth mentioning here since it's less of an extra in my mind but a piece of navigation is that they also include the sex scenes only filter so you get just that when selected. With no languages on here besides Japanese, the player picked up the right subtitle track per our presets with ease.

Extras: The only included video extra here is an image gallery done in slideshow format. Also included is a PSP version of the movie which you can find via the DVD-ROM side of playback.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)After Class Lesson is the latest from the folks at Milky where they once again visit the hallowed halls of school and do what every single school based adult anime seems to do; ring those bells right at the start of the show just so you know where it's taking place. There's something to be said for standard clichés like that in shows like this.

The story focuses around an older teacher named Shibui, an apparent virgin in glasses who hasn't in all his years had any real taste of a woman. He spends some of his time in the classroom when nobody else is there watching videos and pictures of schoolgirls getting it on and masturbating with clothing he's got, presumably from the lost and found. Shibui's definitely a bit of an odd duck around the school but even worse he's not a respected teacher in the slightest nor has he been able to propel many of his students to better heights from his teaching so he's not a favorite of the administration either. In fact, he's told early on that unless things pick up for his students that he'll be finding himself looking for employment elsewhere.

When one of his students, Ayumi, ends up in his room over an issue with the tests, he decides to finally just break loose from his usual methods of watching and looking at people and hits her with the salts that put her to sleep. This lets him start down the road of taking advantage of Ayumi, something she of course resists when she wakes up to find him all over her. But along the way, she ends up realizing just how good he is and finds herself wanting more and more of it. She becomes so enthralled with bedding him that she'll even go out to get other girls for him since he wants to expand his knowledge of women. He gets Ayumi to film him with another of the girls that he's able to blackmail since she's sleeping with one of the other teachers. More and more is all he wants and the virginal teacher now finds himself not only with a star actress in the school but also the cheerleader at the same time, both of them realizing how much they want him the more they get to experience him.

The show has a rather soft feel to it which is enhanced by the kinds of settings that most of the scenes take place in, such as a hazy sunset on the roof, mildly lighted rooms inside the school and the darkness of a gym storage room. The lighting gives everything the same kind of feel and it works for the most part as it takes some of the edge off of the designs and the vibrant colors that they'd be otherwise. The character designs for the girls are very appealing with their standard models that are given over to really nice outfits and overall detail. Even the teacher isn't that bad since he doesn't come across as some of the creepier ones we've seen in other shows. Someday though they'll have to give us an attractive male teacher, won't they?

JapanAnime also continues to get an extra nod for their translation of the end credits into English. Often these are left either in Japanese or sometimes cut out altogether, so going the extra distance is definitely appreciated.

In Summary: After Class Lesson was a bit of a surprise since it's a fairly straightforward show with some minor quirks. What was surprising was more of what wasn't in it, which is any really serious level of bondage or waterworks. What we get is a show that takes the standard creepy teacher motif and lessens it a bit and has the girls actually interested in the guy after they realize his prowess. There's a dark edge to it but it's sort of kept to the side with the focus on the sex in some very moodily lit areas. After Class Lesson just turned out to be more fun than I expected.